Communities need a holistic approach to address the problems that affect the people at the grass root. The planning of the direct beneficiaries involves decentralization in order to allow the lower power centers to widely take part in the development of society. Concerns of the grass root people form the need for decentralization and local governance. People’s involvement in the planning on the village level and all local government units, makes the identification and solving of the problem easier. High participatory levels of all the people especially the marginalized, encourages innovation to source for the appropriate solutions to the common problems that face society. It therefore calls a decentralized system that caters for the voters’ preferences while providing for their services. The people’s concerns call for local planning and the transfer of power to the public so that services are brought nearer to the people. This study will cover the aspects of local government and decentralization such as good governance, democratization, civil society, deconcentration, devolution and delegation, and its relation to the development of societies.

Uganda, like many African countries in the 1990s, adopted decentralisation as a state reform measure after many years of civil strife and political conflicts, by transferring powers and functions to district councils. The decision to transfer powers and functions to district councils was, in the main, linked to the quest for democracy and development within the broader context of the nation state. This book’s broader aim is to examine whether the legal and policy framework of decentralisation produces a system of governance that better serves the greater objectives of local democracy, local development and accommodation of ethnicity. Specifically, the book pursues one main aim: to examine whether indeed the existing legal framework ensures the smooth devolution process that is needed for decentralised governance to succeed. In so doing, the book seeks, overall, to offer lessons that are critically important not only for Uganda but any other developing nation that has adopted decentralisation as a state-restructuring strategy. The book uses a desk-top research method by reviewing Uganda’s decentralisation legal and policy frameworks.

Uganda?s decentralization policy is one of the most ambitious and radical in sub-Saharan Africa. A long tradition of local government already existed in Uganda in 1986 when the National Resistance Movement came to power, so when the Presidential Policy Statement on decentralization was issued in 1992, it only formalized and articulated the Ugandan government?s commitment to the decentralized system of governance. This commitment was subsequently strengthened and maintained through the provisions of the 1995 Uganda Constitution. Decentralisation led to the devolution of broad powers of administration and implementation to the districts, leaving the centre with responsibility for matters of defence, and law and order. This book examines the decentralization project after it has been in place for a number of years and deals with relevant crucial issues. Delius Asiimwe is a Senior Research Fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research, Uganda. Nakanyike B. Musisi is the Executive Director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research, Uganda.